for example. We find that's wrong. The big
influences come from outside. The kelp forest
out there has a huge impact on larvae washing
through it. A good year for fish means a
bad year for barnacles. The larvae get eaten
before they hit the rocks. Or consider upwell
ing. It's good news for most creatures. Not
barnacles. When it occurs, it carries the larvae
out to sea."
The kelp beds that bob just meters offshore
also have tales to tell. And at least once a
month aquarium researchers dive down to
make detailed diaries on the lives of those spec
tacular seaweeds.
"We sit on the bottom with a clipboard and
take notes on the growth rate and the impact of
storms," says researcher Jim Watanabe. "It
gets real chilly.
Surrogate mother to orphaned sea otter Pico,
Julie Hymer helped him learn to dive and
forage for food. The camera angle elongates
the three-foot-long, five-month-old otter.
A threatened species, sea otters number about
150 in the bay. "We try to duplicate everything
moms do," says Hymer, supervisor of the
aquarium's sea otter program. "But there's no
manual. It's all pioneering information."
"Kelp is so fast growing," says Watanabe.
"With terrestrial forests you have to wait a
hundred years to watch the stages of recovery.
When storms rip up a forest of kelp, it comes
back in a couple of seasons."
Aquarium researchers also track drift kelp,
the pieces that break off and wash into nearby
waters. This detritus might be an important
food source for the bay community, and biolo
gists want to know who eats it.
"We are all working on the same question,"
he says. "How does Monterey Bay work?"
And so Ed Ricketts' quest continues. More
sophisticated perhaps. But with the same awe
and respect.
I am invited by Bob Faul, a member of
the club that owns and preserves Rick
etts' Pacific Biological Laboratories, to
have dinner in the old building. Bought by 20
local men shortly after Ricketts' death, "The
Lab," as they call it, is used these days for
occasional social events.
"There used to be lots of great parties
here," recalls Faul's wife, Pat. "Until the
guys got old."
Ricketts would not object. As Faul says,
"He enjoyed life and raised a lot of hell. But he
always remained dedicated to his science."
We go downstairs into the garage and stor
age area. Empty wine bottles now replace
specimen jars on the shelves. We blow dust off
a few copies of a 1937 journal of short stories. I
can see my ghost again in the dim misty light.
And I recall the words Steinbeck wrote about
him. They apply just as well to this bay
he loved.
"Everyone near him was influenced by
him, deeply and permanently. Some he taught
how to think, others how to see or hear. Chil
dren on the beach he taught how to look for
and find beautiful animals in worlds they had
not suspected were there at all. He taught
everyone without seeming to."
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Between Monterey Tides